Social Media

MTV Displaces Vevo as the Top Music Site Online

Internet killed the music video star, but then the music video star "killed" the Internet.

In other words, MTV has apparently made a successful transition to the web and has recently become the number one website for viewing music-related content, bumping YouTube's Vevo from the top position.

According to data just released from comScore, MTV had more than 53 million unique visitors last month, while Vevo's uniques totaled 49 million. The third-place site, MySpace Music, wasn't even close to competing with just 26 million uniques in August.

This news comes just one month after Universal Music Group and Vevo both pulled their music video content from MTV over licensing disputes. Apparently, failing to reach agreements with these entities hasn't harmed the site's traffic at all.

MTV's Director of Communications, Kurt Patat, wrote in an email, "Music is a vital part of MTV Music Group’s DNA and touches everything we do. In a way, our offering is different that Vevo’s. While Vevo is singularly focused streaming music videos, MTV Music Group provides music fans with multiple ways to engage with artists... Unlike Vevo, MTV Music Group also serves as a curator of music through franchises... which help fans discover new artists. These franchises actually help artists and their labels sell singles and albums."

While MTV's execs might be engaging in some celebratory fist-pumping right about now, the folks at Vevo aren't too concerned. After all, Vevo is entirely and only for music videos; no other kind of content is showcased on the site. MTV, on the other hand, has become somewhat frowned upon over the past decade for largely leaving pure music-video programming behind in favor of more tangential content.

So, are comScore's numbers relevant for comparing a music-videos-only website with one that contains all kinds of content? Or did comScore only examine certain parts of MTV when gathering data?

If you wanted to do a straight URL-to-URL comparison, MTVMusic.com might be the best site to look at in terms of content that competes with Vevo's. MTVMusic.com is what it sounds like: An MTV-flavored music video destination. Still, non-music content creeps onto the site; for example, you'll find clips of "Kristin Cavallari's best moments from Laguna Beach." Nevertheless, this type of video is definitely in the minority on the site, and we can't say for sure that 5 million unique users tuned in to MTVMusic.com to watch reality show clips.

Then again, we can't say the opposite is true, either.

Again Patat noted that most music sites are made of various content providers and websites, saying, "For instance, AOL Music is a consortium of sites including AOL Radio, Spinner, NoiseCreep, TheBoot, TheBoombox, etc., and almost half of VEVO’s traffic comes their YouTube site as well as artist sites like LadyGaga.com. The MTV Music Group includes the MTV brands, as well as VH1 and CMT, and other rollup sites like WMG."

If you consider all those sites as bundles, which comScore may or may not have done, 5 million uniques seems like an even less significant margin.

In the end, these two properties are still neck-and-neck to capture the market. Expect the "music video war" to carry on for some time.

Where do you go to watch music videos online? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

What's Hot

More in Social Media

What's New

What's Rising

What's Hot

Mashable
is a leading global media company that informs, inspires and entertains the digital generation. Mashable is redefining storytelling by documenting and shaping the digital revolution in a new voice, new formats and cutting-edge technologies to a uniquely dedicated audience of 42 million monthly unique visitors and 24 million social followers.